Bird Feeder & Hop Circle

By Rachelle

Today I’m sharing two outdoor activities for creative play…

#1: Peanut Butter Bird Feeder

Our house is shaded by an enormous pinecone-dropping machine, and these little beasts can be found in all corners of our mini-oasis. They are so begging to be turned into something, right? Peanut-butter coated pinecone bird feeders, here we come! (Apologies up-front to all my gluten and nut-free friends…this is why there are TWO activities in this post!).

We started by mixing some oat bran into our peanut butter. I read that this is healthier for birds than straigh-up peanut butter because the grains break up the sticky PB and aid their digestion.

I twisted the twine on the cones and then handed them over to the queen peanut-butter spreader, who took her job very seriously.

She then coated them with seeds (from the dollar store – huzzah!). Which reminds me, I originally bought ten bags of the seed as an alternative to sand for our sand table. I highly recommend it as birdseed feels clean, it has a nice texture, and it has little specks of color that make it pop.

And there it is…ready for the birds. Not the pesky squirrels. Okay, are you ready for the sad part of this little tale? We made FOUR of these (4!), hung two by our house and two off a tree by the street. And not one of them was hanging the next morning! I’m pretty sure the squirrels managed to bring them down, but how? Clever little monsters! Has anyone else had this problem? What could we do differently?

#2: Hop Circle

It was a beautiful day, so N moved down to the sidewalk and started on some chalk drawings. She drew a (wobbly) circle on the ground and asked me if I’d draw more of them so that she could play “Hop Circle.” Haha. I kept calling it Circle-Scotch, but it didn’t really matter.

I thought it would be fun to add in some other shapes and drew a triangle. BIG mistake! I really should have checked with the creative director first, as this was NOT in the plan. Back to circles!

Once all the circles (and lone triangle) were laid out to her liking, she hopped away. How fun! And this reminds me of another hopscotch alternative I recently saw at Let the Children Play, where the kids drew a continuous hopscotch all around the school. Take a look!

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Comments

Great activities! I remember having the bird feeder/squirrel problem in St. Louis. We had to make the strings really long so the squirrels couldn’t easily hop onto the pine cones from the branches. Maybe give that a try?

Our squirrels just very politely chewed through the strings and made off with the whole pine cone, and our suet eggs, and almost every other handmade bird treat we tried. Even the ones with cayenne mixed in!

Our squirrels chew through strings. Also through the thick plastic barrel we keep birdseed in…so much for not having it in the house!

Try hanging the pinecones from a wire coathanger pulled to make a long thin loop with the hook at the top to go over the branch. Our squirrels can climb down those — I’m told that threading an aluminum pie plate down the wire (so it hangs horizontally upside down above the pinecone/feeder) foils them (sorry, bad pun, couldn’t resist). Can’t vouch for it, though.

I once watched a squirrel bounce on a branch to start a feeder swinging. She caught it as it swung close enough to reach then ate her fill stretched between it and a branch — one hind toe on the tree, one front toe on the feeder. Any critter willing to work that hard deserves a break now and then!

Hi Frances,
Thanks for the ideas. Squirrels are so resourceful!!! I’m happy to feed birds, but for some reason think our squirrels should be on their own. It’s starting to feel a little discriminatory. Maybe I should give those squirrels a break, as you suggest!!
Rachelle

Yup, ours is still hanging! I just went out last night to refill it again! As we pulled up from school, we saw a bird eating from it, but our van scared it away! hahaha!! The kids were so excited and then so sad that he left! lol!

Haha! Two idea for you: You could make bird feeders all summer long. If you’re successful at attracting birds to your feeders, you might want to keep making them or filling them. I originally bought our 10 pounds of bird seed to fill a big tub for sensory play (instead of sand). You could do the same: pour it into a big storage tub and then add funnels, bowls, and small toys. 🙂

put a metal cone over the top of the pine cone about 3 ft wide with the middle of the cone pointing upwards. squirrels have a hard time with this. painting the cone black makes the cone hot so they get hot foot and leave the feeder alone.they are not hurt by it but they do avoid the feeder.